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Page 95
Alinor was intensely grateful for Ian's presence. She did not wish to lose him.
He came into the hall directly behind Owain and his staggering charge, walking lightly in spite of the weight of mail. The shield was gone, Alinor noted as she turned to bid Joanna take her brother up to the women's quarters and see that he was washed. Geoffrey, who had been playing chess with Joanna, sprang to his feet. Alinor bid him fetch the Earl of Salisbury's messenger to his master.
"Did he say where he came from?" Ian asked.
"France."
"Peste! Then Salisbury has not sailed yet, and it is something to do with the king." The messenger appeared on Geoffrey's heels before there was time for more speculation. Ian took the letter he held out. "This is my betrothed wife, Lady Alinor," he said to the messenger. "Whatever you have to say may be said to her.''
"There was no verbal message, my lord."
Ian looked down at the letter and groaned softly. "It is in his own hand," he said to Alinor as he gestured dismissal at the messenger.
"Then it is bad news?"
"Yes, likely," Ian replied with a wry smile, "but what it worse is that I may never find out what it says. I told you Salisbury was not like the Angevins. It must be said for them that they all take to scholarship like a bird to the air. Every one, even the daughters, writes a fine hand." He broke the seal, looked at the letter, shook his head, and handed the rolled sheet to Alinor. "Salisbury, may God bless and keep him, is the only one of Henry's sons who seems perfectly impervious to clerkly skills."
In spite of her anxiety, Alinor had to laugh as her eye scanned the page. If anything, Ian's remark seemed an understatement. Words appeared interspersed with blots and spatters of ink straggling at odd angles across the page. Sometimes it was not possible to determine

 
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